What I am about to share here is a true story about Integrated Service Management. I changed the name of the customer to Customer because I didn’t ask permission to use Customer’s real name. So you’ll just have to believe me :oD

Oh, What a Better Web We Need

Once upon a time, Customer needed to test the interoperability of hardware, software, operating systems and customer solution stacks for new product releases. Customer needed to coordinate multiple global teams working on an abundance of machines. With thousands of operating system instances in test, Customer faced an enormous management challenge. Growth over time resulted in homegrown tools from many teams that did not interoperate, making data collection difficult. Visibility into tasks assigned to global teams was limited, and often resulted in duplicate testing and lost productivity. In addition to standardizing tools and improving workload tracking and visibility, Customer sought to automate as many repetitive processes as possible, improving productivity and freeing up engineers for more complex testing work.

Integrated Service Management to the Rescue!

The solution for Customer included a RaTivo integration of Rational Quality Manager (RQM) and Tivoli Provisioning Manager (TPM) to allow automatic provision of test machines with the required test configuration, saving Customer manual work and time from request to provision. Additionally, Customer applied Rational Test Lab Manager and Tivoli Application Discovery and Dependency Manager (TADDM) to discover available test lab machines and display the list in RQM, saving Customer test time as all the information is displayed one tool.

All’s Well that Ends Well

You can’t argue with these results. Customer directly benefited from Integrated Service Management by:

Pulse will return to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas February 27 through March 2, 2011, and over 300 client presentations will demonstrate how Integrated Service Management helped their organizations gain an end-to-end view of business services across boundaries to effectively manage risk and compliance, change the economics of delivering service and achieve common business objectives.

Will you be one of those 300? You should be!

Businesses in every industry can transform business models, increase innovation and exceed client expectations through integrated service management, and what better way to learn than through example? Share your company's story - and leadership - with your peers at Pulse 2011!

"You are never going to get past the complexity and risk you deal with on a daily basis, unless you are driving and enabling change. Someone needs to be the thought leader - and that someone is you!" - Al Zollar, Tivoli General Manager

And here's some of the benefits you'll receive if your proposal is accepted:

One full conference pass - a $1995 value!*

Use of our exclusive Client Speaker VIP Lounge

Networking opportunities with over 6000 industry experts, press, and analysts

A profile of your success story in the Pulse online agenda builder

EAM papers are eligible for the Maximo® Best Practices Award

To top it off, the first 50 clients to submit a proposal will receive a FREE hotel upgrade to a Celebrity Spa Suite at the MGM Grand if their proposal is accepted. (*Qualifying clients must pay the basic room rate)

It almost goes without saying, but, hey, I'll say it anyway...Security is top of mind for everyone these days, no matter your industry, no matter the size of your organization - and even on a personal level, too. You certainly don't have to be a security manager to be concerned about security, particularly internet security.

Case in point: Which of the following internet vulnerabilities is keeping you up at night these days?

1. Malware2. Phishing 3. Spam4. Patches5. Remote access

Perhaps a more precise answer would be "All of the above plus a few more."

So, how can you stay ahead of these types of threats - understanding what the most critical and recurrent vulnerabilities are and what you can do to prevent them? One excellent source of emerging information is the IBM X-Force Research and Development team. For more than a dozen years, these security specialists have tracked well over 40,000 different vulnerabilities, from Trojan horses to malware to Web spoofing, and documented them in the world's largest and most comprehensive threat database.

The IBM X-Force researches and monitors the latest internet threat trends, develops security content for IBM customers, and helps advise customers and the general public on how to respond to emerging and critical threats. Twice a year, the team releases a detailed report discussing the latest security complexities. These reports are far more than just abstract information. They are actionable intelligence, designed to lead to more comprehensive security and a better business outcome. Take a look at the latest report.

For more information about how the IBM X-Force research can help your organization (and perhaps even keep you from losing sleep worrying about security threats), check out this Service Management in Action article.

Yes, I love being one of
the ambassadors for IBM’s Client Reference Program, a structured platform that
gives our valued Clients many opportunities to promote their unique
capabilities and stand tall in the, otherwise very competitive, market. IT
revolution, ease of internet, change in consumer behavior etc have all added to
this competitiveness.

While I write this blog, the
two things that I had studied, during school days in Biology, are shouting
aloud from my mind; one, Darwin’s ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and two,
‘legume-rhizobial symbiosis’. Interestingly, these biological phenomenon do
have real examples in economics too. A symbiotic relationship with clients/peers,
thus, is ‘very’ crucial in surviving the Darwinian marketplace. And, what
better way than registering for IBM’s Client Reference Program? :-)

For me, it’s great being a
Client Reference Specialist for Tivoli. Working in collaboration to create
Reference Profiles for our Clients has brought in a lot of advantages. Networking
opportunities with my fellow IBMers, Business Partners and Clients from across
industries is just a ‘cake’, but the real ‘icing’ is my continuous learning
about IBM’s Tivoli software for 'Integrated Service Management' that “provides
smarter solutions and the expertise you need to design, build and manage a
dynamic infrastructure that enables you to improve service, reduce cost and
manage risk.” Yes, I’m always in an awe of how IBM’s Tivoli solutions have
helped our Clients overcome their challenges.

PS: Rebecca Wissinger in
her blog ‘IBM Client Activities at Pulse 2011’ talks about the ways IBM is
saying THANK YOU to our immensely valued, extraordinary Clients at Pulse
2011. If you are attending Pulse 2011 then you will not give her blog a
miss.

The secret's out...there's something coming to Vegas on Sunday, February 27th that you just don't want to miss!

And what could that something be? Hint: It's not the latest incarnation of the Red Piano show. But for those of you interested in how to apply service management concepts in the real world, it's even better....it's the Integrated Service Management Workshop (Cloud Version) at Pulse 2011!

Yes, Las Vegas is know for it's gaming, and the Service Management Simulator Workshop could turn out to be a game changer for you and your company! The Integrated Service Management Simulator Workshop is a hands-on simulation game which focuses on the challenges and business value of implementing Service Management best practices in the context of a realistic and exhilarating scenario. During the session, participants use gaming dynamics to mirror the real-world interaction between IT and the business, from both a strategic and operational perspective. Over the course of a few hours, you'll experience a transformation from chaos to order - in the context of a complex technical infrastructure - and learn what it takes to align key IT infrastructure resources to deliver on mission in measurable terms.

Note that seating is absolutely limited to 20 participants - seats will be filled on a first respond/first serve basis. Don't wait - reserve your spot by sending an email to tivmktg@us.ibm.com.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock the last couple of months, you know that Pulse 2011 is coming to Las Vegas February 27-March 2, 2011. And you know that the Premier Service Management Event will bring together 6000 attendees, focusing on the best practices, solutions and expertise needed to help organizations design, deliver and manage new, innovative business services.

Do you also know that Pulse 2011 promises to be bigger, better and more informative yet? With two days of general session keynotes and over 350 client sessions, Pulse 2011 will demonstrate how Integrated Service Management can help organizations design, deliver, and manage innovative services across business and IT boundaries. The event's five streams have carefully been designed to reflect the ongoing evolution of service management over the last year: Service Management for the Data Center, Enterprise Asset Management, Service Assurance for Service Providers, Security and Compliance and Service Management Beyond the Data Center. Learn more about the Pulse agenda by reading the article Pulse 2011: A Wealth of Service Management Insights.

Pulse 2011 provides unlimited opportunities to hear from industry experts and network with attendees to gain the techniques and insight you need to optimize your service management strategy. Get maximum value from your Pulse 2011 experience by participating in the following additional attractions:

Birds of a Feather Sessions

Business Partner Café

Business Partner Summit

Certification testing

Client hospitality lounge in the Solution Expo

Hands-on labs

Service Management Simulator

Meet the Experts

Pulse Bookstore

Pulse Expo Theaters

User Community Networking Area

Women's Networking Reception

Post Conference Sessions and Workshops

So, lest I leave you with a bland blog post...If you're a service management sage, it's thyme for you to submit your proposal to speak at Pulse. Call for speakers ends November 23rd.

You must(ard) register before December 1st to take advantage of the early bird registration rate.

Be sure to pepper your agenda with sessions that not only interest you but benefit your organization.

And remember, Pulse is held in Las Vegas, where it's sure not to be chili in February.

You'll curry the favor of your colleagues and bosses when you bring back so much service management knowledge and best practices.

Your attendance at Pulse 2011 is, therefore, mint to be.

(I know, these spice puns were bad beyond bay leaf. Ba-dum-bum...my brother would be so proud).

Signing off for now,Your friendly roving Integrated Service Management reporter

The MGM Grand Garden Arena darkens, the roar of the crowd softens to a buzz, the orchestra appears on stage, dramatic music accompanying the video montage of customers telling their service management success stories... So far, this Pulse 2011 Day One General Session rivals what I saw from the Academy Awards last night (absent the evening gowns and tuxes, of course).

And I'm seeing this all from the comfort of my home office!

I was not one of the lucky 7000 people to attend Pulse 2011 in Las Vegas in person, but, for the first time, I can tune into Pulse as it is happening. So, I did just that - I tuned into the Pulse Day One General Session via Livestream...and it seems there were about 400 people doing that right along with me.

I won't go into each element of the Day One General Session in detail, but I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts and takeaways:

One of IBM's clients, Bill Broughton, from Amtrak, kicked off the conference today, telling the crowd of clients, business partners (and yes, a few IBMers), this is "OUR conference."

Our event host, Scott Hebner, Vice President, Worldwide Marketing, IBM Software - Tivoli, reiterated that thought, but from the opposite perspective, telling the crowd that "this is YOUR conference." 85% of the sessions at Pulse 2011 feature client speakers, and the ability to network and share best practices is more important than ever. "It's not just about technology any more...it's about the economic value that technology brings."

Next came Madge Meyer, from State Street, who talked about the importance of innovating - and of executing flawlessly. She even quoted Charles Darwin, which I thought was particularly apropos: "It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one who is the most responsive to change."

Madge was followed by Dr. Danny Sabbah, General Manager, IBM Tivoli, who talked about how the world (business, government, society) is facing an unparalleled rate of change. Companies need the velocity and agility to adapt quickly - and the basis of this will be producing honest data that is transformed by predictive analytics to produce smarter outcomes. And he reminded the crowd that IBM needs to move as fast as they do.

Steve Mills, Senior VP and Group Executive Software & Systems, IBM, introduced the crowd - and the rest of the world - to the new era of Smarter Computing. He reminded us that IT operating costs is the core issue faced by clients around the world...and although there's significant increase on IT demands, IT budgets are flat. We need to fundamentally transform the economics of IT...and that is Smarter Computing. A couple of straight talk points: IT consolidation is pretty much a given. Get rid of excess IT Now. And he offered arguably the best quote of the morning: "People say stupid crap every day...you have to decide what to listen to."

And finally, Dean Kamen, Innovator and Entrepreneur, wowed the crowd with his talk about innovation and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Technology). He described innovation as being failure, failure, failure...followed by surprise after surprise (mostly bad)...but every once in a while, you get a good surprise in there, too. I really enjoyed his story about Chuck and the DARPA prosthetic arm (got a little misty eyed, I must admit). And I was especially moved by his FIRST initiative and his absolute passion for turning science/math into a sport - making it something that you have passion for, that is aspirational, and that you want to participate in. Being a female and being a computer science major (and still often being the only female in a room of techies), that hit home with me. I was also proud to see my alma mater, Georgia Tech, was a sponsor of FIRST. Again, as he talked about the success of FIRST through the years, the eyes got a little teary.

Whew! What a great way to start! I encourage you to watch the Day One General Session in its entirety at your convenience - and to tune into the Day Two General Session tomorrow morning. My experience with Livestream is that that the technology was practically flawless (I only had one minor audio glitch when Dean Kamen was showing the Stephen Colbert video). Otherwise, the livestreaming went along perfectly. And it will well be worth your while to watch the whole session. It will get your mind thinking, and it will inspire you at the same time. Plus, it's like having a front-row seat!

In Ivor Macfarlane's most recent article, he (rightfully) points out that we should look beyond cost to improve service management. Cost used to be the major (if not only) factor in making IT decisions, but it isn't any more, especially when it comes to service management. IT services deliver a lot more than economic savings. They create new possibilities, generate new business advantages, empower new services and strategies, connect organizations with new customers and markets, and much more.

Ivor explains it much more eloquently than I, but here are a few things I took away from his article:

The concept of "cost" as a way of assessing IT services should transform to "value," which is fundamental to ITIL at its core. Take these definitions straight from ITIL:

"A service is a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific cost and risks."

"Service Management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services."

Instead of talking about TCO (Total Costs of Ownership), we should talk about CCO (Complete Consequences of Operation). As IT services become more and more pervasive, the consequences of problematic IT service management become more and more significant.

There are other factors that should be considered as well,such as energy management/sustainability, public relations, human resource allocation and more.

In a nutshell, IT service management should address costs, value, consequences and benefits. Definitely food for thought. (Perhaps Curry in a Hurry?)

It probably goes without saying, but service management means different things in different industries: Service management can help banks improve customer service, drive business model efficiency and manage operational risk. Service management can help government agencies reduce complexity and waste and deliver services more effectively to the citizens who rely on them. And communications service providers need innovative service management solutions to address the limits of the backbone, a highly competitive environment and customer loyalty.

The list goes on, but in all cases, rendering better service management in any given industry means weighing and balancing different complexities—as well as the leading solutions and strategies best suited to address them.

Pulse 2011 provides the perfect venue for you to not only learn about service management for your industry - but to actually see it. And seeing is believing, after all. The Pulse Expo Center will offer demos in groups, designed to explore the most pressing needs service management professionals face in six different industries:

Smarter Buildings

Intelligent Site Operations

Communications Service Providers

Smarter Energy & Utilities

Integrated Service Management for Banking/Insurance

Smarter Healthcare

In addition to these clusters of industry demos, you'll also have access to industry-centric demos taking place elsewhere in the event. Not to mention tons of industry-specific sessions and activities - Check out the Pulse 2011 Sample Agenda Builder and see for yourself. Choose "Search by Industry" and select your industry.

As businesses and governments continue to develop and design products and services that are increasingly interconnected, IBM is working with clients to help them build the competencies to manage these products in smarter ways. This week at Innovate, the Tivoli and Rational teams, delivered several sessions to the agenda that demonstrated to the software developers, clients, and business partners how to design develop, deploy an manage smarter products by linking development and operations using Cloud technology. I was thrilled to see the level of interest and enthusiasm from the audience for Integrated Service Management. Many of the sessions were standing room only, including the track kickoff, which had to be moved to a larger room! Sessions that were not SRO were also very popular with nearly full rooms.

.

We were lucky to capture Bala Rajararaman, Tivoli Distinguished Engineer and Top Gremlin-Buster, along with Moe Abdula from Tivoli Development, who shared their passion for Smarter Products and Services by integrating the tools, processes and data of development and operations.

The Integrated Service Management demos at Innovate, that is. Evidently, integrating development and operations is a heck of a lot easier than you would think. Even more simple, are the reasons why you want want to do that. A unified strategy focused on visibility, control, and automation can help you minimize the cost and risk of delivering the next generation of smarter products and services and so you can take charge of your software design and delivery ifecycle.

If you're currently at Innovate, look up in the Expo for the signs marked "Integrated Service Management" or come find me in the Client Connection Lounge and I'll walk over and introduce you to the great guys hosting the Integrated Service Management demos.

Last Tuesday, we debuted new releases to the IBM Tivoli Access Management family with an announcement letter (210-159).

I suggested that we take the products down to the local Sears for a "family picture." We'd go for a tropical theme (to commemorate the ending of Lost) and maybe even let IBM Tivoli Unified Single Sign-On hold the teddy bear.

I was outvoted. I won't say by how much. But I was outvoted.

Instead, we did something a heck of a lot better. It's something that I retweeted last week.

As customers are driving new business initiatives, IBM can provide the secure access they need. Typical access requirements we're hearing from our customers are:

Enabling secure access to new service delivery platforms like cloud and SOA

All of this is provided in detail on the Enhanced Security website, where there is more information on these initiatives. If you like what you read, contact your IBM sales representative or business partner.

And, no. See above, I do not have wallet-sized pictures of the Tivoli Security Policy Manager...maybe next time...

In his keynote address yesterday, Al Zollar talked about how customers are leveraging Integrated Service Management. Capital Region of Denmark in Copenhagen, is in the process of leveraging Integrated Service Management to track missing assets, improve maintenance schedules and get their company back on track.

Capital Region of Denmark is a conglomerate of hospitals with data distributed across three different storage tiers and four sites, with an online disk capacity of 500 Terabytes and backup and archive data exceeding 1.5 Petabytes.

They have solved their storage complexity issues with Integrated Service Management and are managing their entire storage infrastructure with only four people.

He also talked about how the U.S. Air Force is leveraging Integrated Service Management. The U.S. Air Force defense and intelligence network manages the operations of nine major commands, nearly 100 bases, and 700,000 active military personnel around the world. They are leveraging Integrated Service Management solutions to design and deliver a cloud infrastructure with unprecedented levels of security and resiliency.

It's not just a vision for the future--it's happening now. Integrated Service Management can help your company get past the complexity and risk you deal with on a daily basis.

Impact gives us a chance to talk to our customers about how Integrated Service Management aligns with Business Process Management and SOA as well as gives us another opportunity to show some amazing joint Cloud solutions (see the press release from Pulse, "IBM Advances Cloud Computing with New Software").

If you're at Impact (and even if you're not...more on that later in the post), here's how to find us:

Tivoli At Impact? There's a Web Page For That

The "Tivoli At Impact" web page, courtesy of David Ojalvo (@David_Ojalvo), is the offical page for everything that's going on at Impact for Tivoli software.

The Cool Kid's Table In The Solution Expo

There are many things that you'll be able to see in the Solution Expo, but if you want to know where all the cool kids (aka the Integrated Service Management folks) are then take note of the list below:

On Wednesday, April 13 from 12:00 - 1:30pm we will be hosting a luncheon reception where you will be able to meet some of our subject matter experts and executives.

Space is extremely limited, so if you want to attend then you need to register on the website (only registered attendees will be able to get in).

It's Not Just TV, It's Impact TV

Much like we did at Pulse, Impact keynotes and a ton of interviews will be broadcast live on Livestream. Keep an eye on the Impact TV channel for all sorts of great interviews, including Jamie Thomas (VP of Tivoli Strategy and Development) on Monday, April 11 at 3pm PST (UTC/GMT -8 hours).

Jamie is one of my personal favorite people to hear talk about Integrated Service Management. She gave a killer keynote at Pulse and you'll she also had a great conversation with Scott Laningham at Pulse (along with our VP of Sales, Joao Perez) which puts her on my "must see TV" list for Impact and you should make plans to check it out too.

The Social At IBM Impact Portal is great for both attendees and folks sitting at their desks. Much like what we did for Pulse, this site has the latest Twitter and blog posts as well as a window to the LiveStream.

And just what are Proven Practice Workshops? First of all, they're new to Pulse 2011 - reason enough to check them out. Second, in these workshops, you'll hear from leading Tivoli Services experts about their proven implementation best practices and guidance. Tivoli Services will lead 5 of these dynamic workshops:

Business Service Management

Cloud

Integrated Service Management

Security

Storage

Each workshop will provide real-world value, including best practices, reference architectures, solution optimization, cross-domain integration, effective rollout strategies and common myths and pitfalls. For hands-on, practical information on how to get better ROI from the infrastructure, it's hard to beat the Proven Practice Workshops at Pulse 2011. Learn more about these workshops in the article Pulse 2011: Proven Practice Workshops Maximize ROI.

Special Interest Areas

Pulse 2011 will deliver more information, in more ways, on more relevant subjects, than ever before. With such a rich array of information to choose from, some of you may be wondering: "How can I zero in on exactly the right sessions for me?"

Pulse has got this solved through Special Interest Areas, of which there are seven:

Best practices and implementation

Cloud computing

Economics

Energy management

Midsize business

System Z

Virtualization

Once you've registered for Pulse, you can begin using IBM's Pulse SmartSite to build your personalized agenda. From the Agenda Builder section, you can search for relevant sessions in several different ways—one of which is by Special Interest Area. You can see below the Virtualization Special Interest area: